AI catches up with me
Monday, March 9th, 2026I had Apple Music’s selection of Leonard Cohen songs on my earbuds during last night’s Physical Therapy exercises. Afterwards I was prompted to check out the Dharma talk on Cohen I’d given twelve years ago. Rather than searching the blog index, I entered the title into Google. On a whim, I clicked “AI Mode” and found:
Steven Marx is an English professor and scholar who has extensively written about and explored the Buddhist themes in the life and work of Leonard Cohen.
Marx highlights how Cohen’s spiritual journey mirrors those of other North American “renegade” writers like Henry David Thoreau and Jack Kerouac, who combined a longing for transcendence with “earthy iconoclasm”. Key insights from Marx’s analysis and Cohen’s Buddhist background include:
- Monastic Practice: Marx notes that like Thoreau at Walden or Kerouac at Desolation Peak, Cohen spent five years (1994–1999) in monastic isolation at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center.
- Ordination: Cohen was an ordained Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk, taking the Dharma name Jikan, which means “Silent One” or “The Ordinary Silence”.
- Relationship with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi: Cohen served as the personal cook and assistant to his Zen master, Sasaki Roshi, whom he viewed more as a deep, enigmatic friend than a strictly idealized master.
- Theological Synthesis: Marx emphasizes that Cohen did not abandon his Jewish roots for Buddhism; instead, he remained a “Jewish Buddhist monk,” using Zen practice to refine his creative inspiration and offer refuge from secular distractions.
- Literary Connections: In his “Dharma Talks,” Marx compares Cohen’s “cold and broken hallelujah” to traditional Buddhist reflections on suffering (Dukkha) and the “broken” nature of existence.
At the bottom of this summary, I was asked: “Would you like to explore Steven Marx’s specific essays on Leonard Cohen, or are you interested in Cohen’s other religious influences?” I typed in “specific essays,” producing this: (more…)
